AG Madigan warns state police to comply with orders to expunge records

Chris Dettro

Friday

Mar 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 27, 2009 at 10:49 PM

Attorney General Lisa Madigan is demanding that Illinois State Police immediately comply with all valid court orders to expunge records and calls the agency’s apparent failure to do so “an unbelievable defiance of the law.”

Attorney General Lisa Madigan is demanding that Illinois State Police immediately comply with all valid court orders to expunge records and calls the agency’s apparent failure to do so “an unbelievable defiance of the law.”

A state police spokesman said all 32,000 orders for expungement the agency has received since 2004 have been “thoroughly reviewed and acted upon,” although about 2,700 weren’t complied with because the petitioner had other convictions or had sought expungement of ineligible convictions.

The attorney general’s office demanded last week that ISP comply with all valid court orders and conduct an audit to determine the scope of the non-compliance and contact people who were affected.

“Ignoring these expungement orders negatively impacts the lives of people who deserve a fair opportunity to get a job, find housing and take care of their families,” Madigan said.

Illinois law allows certain criminal and traffic offenses to be expunged —erased from court and police records — or sealed. The expungement and sealing process can be critical for people who are seeking employment, job licenses and certificates, or applying for housing or loans.

Offenses that cannot be expunged include driving under the influence, sexual offenses against minors and most felonies, with the exceptions of drug possession and prostitution, records of which can be sealed.

Madigan said she learned earlier this month that state police had not complied with orders to expunge records entered by circuit court judges in counties across Illinois. She said the number of orders at issue probably exceeds 6,000 in Cook County alone.

A story published by the Chicago Reporter using figures obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests says state police ignored 8,583 court orders to seal or expunge the records of reformed ex-offenders throughout the state from 2004 to 2008. In Cook County, 6,948 orders were not enforced, the story said.

However, ISP spokesman Lt. Scott Compton said last week the original numbers sent to the Chicago Reporter represented the number of charges to be expunged or sealed that were not enforced, not the number of orders.

He said there were 2,692 orders statewide, including 1,605 in Cook County, that weren’t carried out.

“We have rectified this with the Chicago Reporter,” Compton said.

He said 29,000 of the orders received by the state police since 2004 resulted in expungement or sealing.

“The rest covered persons ineligible for relief because of other convictions on their record, or they requested expungement of offenses that weren’t eligible,” Compton said. “Even with those, we made notification to the petitioner and the state’s attorney in the county where the conviction occurred.

“But we did not notify the judge in a timely manner, and we have now rectified that.”

Compton said he didn’t know how many of the orders came from Sangamon County.

Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Madigan, said a county-by-county breakdown is one of the things the attorney general’s office has requested from the ISP.

“The next step is to get our arms around the scope of the problem and the basis of the denials,” she said. “I assume they’ll be cooperative.”

Compton said the state police are cooperating.

“We’re working quickly to get this resolved,” he said. “We apologize and sympathize with people who may have been affected by this.”

Chris Dettro can be reached at (217) 788-1510 or chris.dettro@sj-r.com.

What is expungement?

Expungement and sealing both are ways to limit access to criminal records.

Expungement results in a record being destroyed. If a record is sealed, it is kept confidential and can be reviewed only for limited law enforcement and sentencing purposes.

The only felony convictions that qualify for sealing are certain drug possession and prostitution convictions, as well as certain special felony probations. Any other felony conviction has to be cleared by a pardon from the governor.

Sentences of supervision or probation for certain misdemeanors may qualify for expungement or sealing five years after the sentence is discharged.

DUIs and sexual offenses committed against people younger than 18 don’t qualify for expungement.

Petitions for expungement are most common in Sangamon County for arrests that were never charged and for misdemeanor battery and criminal damage cases, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

An attorney generally charges $750 to $1,000 to handle an expungement. You also may pick up a packet of paperwork at the circuit clerk’s office, pay a small fee and begin the process yourself.

Once a petition is filed, the case is set on a judge’s schedule, which usually takes about 30 days. Within that period, the defendant is to notify the agencies involved.

On the Web

More information on expungement and sealing of records is available at the Office of the State Appellate Defender’s Web site: http://www.state.il.us/defender/exp.html or at the Illinois attorney general’s Web site: http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/brochures.html.

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